


The Gaslight Saga

by JupiterMelichios



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: 7000 word summary of a 70000 word fic idea, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Twilight Fusion, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Comment Fic, Crossover, F/F, F/M, Gen, I don't have the time or desire to write this, Not!Fic, all that fun stuff, but this is what i'd write if i did, character developement, fixing Twilights biggest problems is suprisingly easy, non abusive relationships, world-building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 22:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16921875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JupiterMelichios/pseuds/JupiterMelichios
Summary: As the Waynes walk past, Steph makes eye contact with the one in her year, Tim.“See?” Harper says. “Cold dead eyes of a serial killer.”Steph doesn’t see. Tim hadn’t looked dead to her - in that moment he’d looked like the most alive person she’s ever met.The not!fic version of the fic I would write, if I had the time or energy to write a three book Twilight AU that nobody wants.





	1. Book 1

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly this exists because the idea of the Wayne boys walking into the school caffeteria like the Cullens in the first Twilight film is just unreasonably hilarious to me.
> 
> Gaslight Saga is a reference to the Batman AU 'Gotham by Gaslight', as well as to the Twilight books. This is actually not about an abusive relationship.
> 
> Also it's suprisingly easy to fix most of Twilight's biggest problems just by shifting the focus away to the supporting cast once in a while. Have someone other than Bella or Edward actually do something. I don't hate Twilight. I have a weird soft spot for the films which range from astonishingly good under the circumstances to hilaribad, and I'm always in favour of more supernatural and fantasy books being aimed at girls. That said, the series has some pretty major problems of tone, pacing, and Bella being perfect all the time. This is partly an attempt to fix that.

Stephanie Brown lives with her dad in a small town in Arizona. She was born in Gotham, but moved away when she was 5 after her parents got divorced. Her dad got custody, due to her mother being an addict, but Steph often wanders why he bothered when he doesn’t seem to want her around. A few weeks into her Junior year, he’s arrested and Steph finds herself being shipped back to a city she barely remembers to live with her newly clean mom, who she hardly knows.

Her first week living with her mom, her mom invites Babs over. Babs used to babysit for Steph when she was a kid, and Steph has always looked up to her. She’s grown up into a very beautiful and somewhat intimidating woman, who leaves Steph completely tongue-tied. Fortunately she’s also bought the girl she’s fostering with her, who is only a year younger than Steph. Cass doesn’t speak, but she’s very expressive all the same, and she’s got the brightest smile Steph has ever seen, and for the first time Steph thinks that maybe being back in Gotham won’t be so bad.

She manages to make two friends on her first day of school. Her second lesson of the day is civics, and the whole lesson gets derailed by a boy called Lonnie with blonde hair and a lot of opinions on Anarchism. When she nervously asks him about it afterwards, it turns out he wasn’t even trying to get out of the lesson, he’s just very into alternative methods of governance. She thinks he’s a nutter, but she also can’t help liking how passionate he is. And then he introduces her to Harper, who has purple hair and an ‘ask me about my gay agenda’ shirt, and suddenly a new school doesn’t seem quite so terrifying.

It’s not until her second day that she sees the Waynes for the first time. They walk into the cafeteria during lunch in formation, like they’re on the opening of a 90s cop drama, and they’re all ridiculously handsome and dressed way too fancy for highschool. When she asks Lonnie and Harper about them, they tell her they’re the Wayne boys - Dick, Jason, Tim and Duke - and that according to school rumour they’re all fucking one another and all serial killers. They live in a creepy Gothic mansion on the edge of town, and everyone’s sure Dick and Jason are way too old to be in highschool but no one can prove it.

As they walk past, Steph makes eye contact with the one in her year, Tim.

“See?” Harper says. “Cold dead eyes of a serial killer.”

Steph doesn’t see. Tim hadn’t looked dead to her - in that moment he’d looked like the most alive person she’s ever met.

She finds out the next day that Tim is in her English class. She makes an initial attempt at making friends, and he reacts like she’s dirt, so when they get paired together for a project she’s pretty pissed off, especially when she sees how relieved everyone else is not to be paired with him. However as the weeks go by, he starts to warm up and she finds that while he’s still definitely a weirdo, he’s also funny and clever. Harper teases her about her serial killer boyfriend, but Steph doesn’t admit that she actually has started to develop a crush on him.

On the way to class one day, a Senior boy she doesn’t know calls her a dyke for hanging out with Harper and Lonnie. When she tells him to fuck off, he shoves her over. She falls and hits her head hard. Tim doesn’t see the incident, but arrives shortly after and offers to carry her to the nurse. She refuses the offer, but does let him support her, as she’s feeling woozy. She explains what happened to the nurse, but it’s Tim that mentions that she’s bleeding, even though the small wound is covered by her hair, and she hadn’t noticed it until he pointed it out. When she’s surprised, he comments that he could smell the blood.

After that they start spending more time together. He never eats lunch, but he sometimes sits with her and her friends. He gets on pretty well with both of them, but he rarely talks about himself or his family, and Harper continues to find him “just so creepy, my dude”.

In the middle of winter, as Steph and Harper are walking into school, someone loses control of their car on an ungritted bit of parking lot, skidding on the ice and nearly hitting Steph. She doesn’t have time to move, but suddenly Tim appears, shoving her out of the way but getting hit by the car himself. Tim’s oldest brother Dick, who saw what happened, insists on taking them to the local doctor, as Steph landed heavily and twisted her ankle as she fell.

The doctor turns out to be their father Bruce, who Steph decides is nice but just as weird as his kids. He advises her to keep off her ankle for a few days, but declares her otherwise unharmed. On her way out she sees Tim, and is astonished to learn that he’s completely unhurt, despite having been hit by the car. Dr Wayne has signed them both off school for the day, so they decide to go for burgers (Tim once again not eating anything, claiming he doesn’t eat junk food). Over their food, she questions him about how he avoided injury, and he avoids the question, though she gets the impression he’s enjoying watching her try and figure it out. They joke about him being a superhero, but as they’re leaving reminds her that not everyone with special powers is a hero.

That weekend, Babs invites Steph over for a party to celebrate Cass’s first year being fostered by her. Steph and Cass are the only kids there, everyone else being Babs’s age. Helena, one of Babs’s friends, asks Steph about school. When she mentions that she’s friends with Tim Wayne, Helena warns her to stay away from the Waynes, saying they’re bad news. Later in the evening, the conversation turns to horror movies, and Dinah starts complaining about how films always get vampire mythology wrong, before quickly being silenced by the others, which strikes Steph as particularly weird.

Thinking that Cass needs to make more friends her own age, Steph invites her to come out into town with her, Lonnie, and Harper. Harper is clearly attracted to Cass, and Steph finds she is unexpectedly jealous. She decides she needs to clear her head, and tells the others she’s leaving for a few minutes but will be back later. As she’s walking, she bumps into the senior boy who pushed her in the hallway. She initially apologises for walking into him, but he and his friends get aggressive, and make some unpleasant sexual remarks. When one of them tries to grab her, she punches him, leading to them all attacking her. She does her best, but she’s outnumbered and they’re all bigger than her. She runs away, but she doesn’t know where she’s going, and they’re all fitter and taller than her. They’re about to catch her when Tim grabs her hand and pulls her into an alley. He leads her via a dumpster and a fire escape onto the roof of a building, out of sight of the boys.

Tim starts to leave, but Steph calls him back, saying she doesn’t want to be alone. Tim agrees to stay, but asks her to distract him from his temper: he doesn’t want to lash out at her but he’s finding it hard to calm down. Steph can’t think of anything to say, so she ends up telling him about Cass, and Babs, and then that somehow leads to her telling him about Helena warning her to stay away from the Waynes. Tim says that Babs are her friends aren’t any better than them, but refuses to elaborate.

Looking for something to keep the conversation going, she asks him how he found her, and he admits that he’d been following her. After she hit her head at school and then nearly got hit by a car, he worries about her. Steph says that if it was anyone else she’d think that was really creepy, but she’s used to Tim’s creepy and knows he was trying to look out for her, and thanks him for being there when she needed him. Steph’s phone goes off, breaking the tension of the moment, and Steph explains to a frantic Harper what happened, and asks her to get Cass home safe.

Tim and Steph go out for burgers, and Steph jokes about it being a tradition now that Tim doesn’t eat anything. She mentions that he’s reminding her of a vampire, because of Dinah talking about them at the party, and Tim laughs it off in a way Steph finds suspicious. She accuses him of being a vampire, initially joking, but as she talks she starts realizing just how many clues there actually are, and to her astonishment he admits it. She initially doesn’t believe it, but he shows her his fangs as proof. He explains that he’s a vampire, and so are his family. He’d been able to follow her into town because he can read minds, although not hers for reasons he’s unable to explain, and he’d heard Harper and Lonnie’s thoughts. He’d then followed the bullies’ thoughts until he found her, and when he tried to leave on the roof he’d been thinking about finding them and killing them for hurting his friend, even though he doesn’t normally kill people.

They stay talking at the diner until it closes, Steph asking him everything she can think of about vampires, and about his family. He refuses to tell her what happens if he goes out in sunlight, only that it doesn’t kill him, which intrigues her. After the diner closes he drives her home, and walks her to her door, and there’s a moment when she thinks about kissing him, but he leaves before she can and she’s not sure if she’s disappointed about that or not.

They spend more time together once she knows the truth, and Steph begins to think that perhaps there might be something romantic between them. At the same time, Cass has started texting her (she’s still learning to read and write, but she got the hang of emojis quickly) and they are becoming closer, and Steph can’t stop thinking about how jealous she’d been when she thought Cass might like Harper. She tries asking Cass about it, but Cass always avoids the question.

One day Tim texts her that it’s going to be sunny at the weekend, and would she like to meet up? She agrees, but has to lie to her mom about where she’s going, as her mom is protective and wouldn’t like her being out alone with a boy, even if they’re just friends. When she tells Tim about this when he picks her up, he asks her to text Harper and Lonnie about what she’s doing, so that someone knows where she is. He explains that he doesn’t want to hurt her, and wouldn’t be doing this if he thought it was likely that he would, but he’s still dangerous and she should take precautions. She does as he asks, but insists that it’s unnecessary.

He takes her to Robinson Park, to a remote area not often frequented by tourists. Tim is wearing a hoodie with the hood up and a cap on, and she jokes that he looks like a stereotype of a dangerous teenager. When they reach the remote area he removes his cap and hoodie, and she discovers that he sparkles in the sunlight, which she thinks is both very beautiful and absolutely hilarious. He’s clearly uncomfortable with her seeing him, even though he tries to hide it, and she impulsively hugs him, realizing as she does it that it’s the first time she’s ever touched him that didn’t involve her being in danger in some way. They sit in the sun and talk, and after a while she takes his hand and holds it. He seems to be enjoying himself, but at the same time she can see that he’s tense. At one point she leans in close to him and he starts back as though she frightened him. When she apologises he explains that although he has been ‘vegetarian’ for a long time, he’s still finding it hard to keep control. When she says again that she trusts him, he breaks a limb off a tree to show how strong he is, and points out that he would only need to slip for a second to do irreparable harm, and he doesn’t want to take any risks with someone he cares so much about.

Surprised but pleased, Steph asks if he really cares so much, and he admits that he’s fallen in love with her, leading to Steph kissing him for the first time in response. Although he initially kisses her back, he quickly pulls away as he finds the intimacy too much for his self-control. They decided to call it a day, and Tim offers to show her one of his powers, giving her a piggyback ride back to the car at super speed. When he puts her down she is laughing and dizzy, and instinctively goes to kiss him again, only to have him pull away before she can, leaving the date on a bittersweet note as they drive home in awkward silence, the first time in months that she hasn’t felt she could talk to him about anything.

On the doorstep, she impulsively asks him to come in, sensing that he would brood or feel guilty if he was alone. She quickly clarifies that she’s not asking him to have sex which makes him laugh and he agrees. After she’s said goodnight to her mom, he climbs in through her bedroom window and they play video games together, Steph amused but frustrated that having been a nerd since before she was born, plus having super-fast reflexes, means he wipes the flood with her in every game they try. When Steph starts yawning he goes to leave, and she shyly asks if he’d like to stay. He explains that he could never have sex with a human because of how fragile they are, and she responds that she had meant like a sleepover. They both laugh at their own embarrassment, and he tells her that he doesn’t sleep. She asks if he’ll at least stay till she falls asleep, secretly determined to stay awake, but she quickly dozes off with her head resting on his leg.

When she wakes up the next morning she finds he’s still there, and he admits that he hadn’t wanted to move and wake her up. She tells him that he’s creepy, but secretly she’s touched that he’d do that for her.

The next day he takes her to meet his family. She already knows Dick a bit, and has seen Duke and Jason around school, but she’s surprised to learn that he has another brother, Damian, as well as Alfred who introduces himself as the butler, but who she quickly figures out is more like their Grandfather. They’re all nice but weird except Damian, who’s so rude to her that she’s too surprised to be offended. Tim explains that while the others periodically re-enroll in high school for a year or two in order to practice passing as real teenagers (something Jason and Dick don’t need to do, but do anyway to provide moral support for Tim and Duke), Damian finds it harder to remain vegetarian and also just doesn’t like humans much, so doesn’t join them.

At lunchtime, Jason makes her a sandwich, and Steph decides she likes him best of Tim’s family. He’s the most down to earth and normal of the eccentric family, and seems the least phased by her being a human. She guesses maybe he’s younger than the others, since he seems to remember what being human is like in a way the others don’t. She teases Tim that he should try to be more like Jason, and he admits that one of the reasons he hadn’t introduced her to his family properly before now was the fear that she wouldn’t like him anymore when she saw that Dick was handsomer and Jason better at pretending to be normal. Steph tells him that likes him best, and kisses him on the nose since he doesn’t react well to kisses on the lips.

She asks about the house, and Alfred, and Tim tells her Bruce’s history. How his parents died when he was a child, and he was left in the care of an elderly aunt, but was mostly raised by his family's servants, especially Alfred. When Bruce was in his late 20s, still single due to his lack of interest in romance, he met a powerful vampire known as the Demon’s Head, Ra’s al-Ghul. Ra’s took a liking to Bruce, and turned him. Bruce lived with Ra’s for a number of years, before his conscience wouldn’t allow him to stay. He vowed to become a ‘vegetarian’ and returned home, but he had been gone for a long time, and shortly after he returned his aunt died of old ago. Realizing that it would be his fate to watch everyone he loved age and die, Bruce fell into a deep depression. Seeing this, Alfred resolved that he would become a vampire, so that the man he had raised like a son wouldn’t have to be alone. Since then the two of them have adopted young vampires who are alone and in need of family, like Tim.

A few weeks later, Steph’s cornered by the boys who were chasing her in town as she's leaving school. She tries to fight them, but she’s outnumbered. She thinks to herself that at least they seem to just want to beat her up, nothing anything worse, and resolves that she won’t call for help in case Tim hears. She doesn’t want to test his self-control like that.

They knock her down, and one of them starts kicking her. Just as she’s thinking that she’ll need to call for help even if it means Tim might hear, because the pain is getting overwhelming, Jason appears and rescues her. He doesn’t bite or kill any of them, but he does stamp on one boy's hand hard enough to break several bones, and punches another of them hard enough to knock out two of his teeth. When they threaten to call the cops or the Principle, Jason points out that he was defending a girl, and his dad’s a millionaire, so good luck making him look like the bad guy. Steph is surprised at his self-control, and he tells her that unlike his brothers, who prefer to avoid humans outside of attending school once a decade or so, he actually likes humans and spends more time around them. He checks her over, and declares that while she’ll be black and blue for a few days, she’s not seriously hurt. She makes him promise not to tell Tim what happened, since she doesn’t think the boys will try anything again after what Jason did to them, and he pinky-promises that it’s their secret.

The Waynes invite Steph to come join a family soccer match (Alfred had taught all of them to play, although the version they play is hundreds of years old and involves a lot fewer rules than the normal kind). Steph doesn’t play, since she’s still kind of bruised up and she doesn’t trust Damian not to tackle her, but she joins Alfred in refereeing. It's hard to follow when they're all using super-speed, but she has fun all the same. In the middle of the game they stop because Tim has heard another vampire approaching. He tries to take Steph away, but it’s too late.

Jack introduces himself to the family as an old friend of Bruce’s but based on Bruce’s reaction, Steph thinks old enemy is more accurate. Still Bruce is polite to Jack as Jack introduces his companion, a blond female vampire called Harley, and flirts pretty outrageously with Bruce. Eventually it looks like Jack’s going to get bored and leave, when he spots Steph for the first time. She’s hiding behind Jason, because Tim’s really not big enough to hide behind, but when Jack focuses on her she feels his attention like a physical blow, and she knows without needing to be told that he is old and powerful.

He asks her her name, and Tim steps between them, says that it doesn’t matter. Cattle don’t need names.

He’s a good liar, good enough that Steph believes him, starts to wonder if their friendship has all just been a game to him, but Harley sees through him. “He loves her!” she says, and she sounds delighted. “Oh that’s so romantic, dontcha think, J?” 

“Oh yes,” Jack agrees. “So romantic. Like Romeo and Juliet. Star-crossed lovers. Destined to end in tragedy.”

“Don’t touch her,” Bruce says. “Jack please, I don’t want to hurt you, but she is under my protection. So for my sake, for the years we’ve known one another, don’t touch her.”

“Oh Brucey baby, you sweet talker you. Alright, just this once. Since it’s _you_.”

They leave, and Steph is relieved, but Tim is frantic with worry, and Bruce and Dick don’t seem that much calmer. They explain that for Jack to have given in without demanding anything in return, and especially to have left after only a few minutes conversation, definitely means he was lying and he’s coming for Steph.

Tim wants to hide her in Gotham General, but Steph and Bruce both object on the basis it would endanger the patients. Dick suggests sending her back to Arizona, which Steph rejects. It’s Jason that fights her corner, insisting that hiding her here, in a town that already has her scent on it, is the only option. In the end the family agree. Tim and Damian, as the smallest, get blonde wigs and some of Steph’s dirty laundry and get set out with Dick and Bruce as protection to lay false trails, while Steph stays at the manor with Jason, Duke and Alfred.

That night she gets a phone call from Lonnie. Jack has him, and tells Steph he’ll kill him if she doesn’t come to him.

She tries to sneak out, but is caught by Jason. Frantic, she tells him what’s happened, expecting him to stop her, but instead he just insists she let him come with her. “Tim thinks not taking human life if enough. But some of us remember that saving lives is what really matters.”

They go to the coordinates Jack gave them, and find Jack and Lonnie, who’s hurt but still alive. Jack offers them a deal - Steph’s life in exchange for Lonnie’s. Before Steph can answer, Jason tells Jack that he doesn’t make deals with liars and attacks him.

Joker is stronger and more experienced than Jason, but Jason is determined and no matter how badly he gets hurt, Jason keeps getting back up. Jack manages to bite Steph, but Jason drags him off before he can drain her. Steph gets thrown around in the chaos as Jack tries to get to her again, and breaks her leg. As they struggle the others arrive, just in time to see Jack rip Jason’s head off.

Bruce flies into a rage, and Dick and Damian aren’t far behind him. They tear Jack apart and burn the remains. Meanwhile Duke has made a tourniquet for Steph’s arm, to try and stop the venom from spreading, but he’s too new to be able to suck it out himself without loosing control and killing her. Tim tries to ask Bruce to do it, but Bruce is too lost in the grief of seeing Jason die, and after Bruce they all know Tim has the next best control.

Steph is fading in and out of consciousness. She’s aware of the fight with Jack, Lonnie screaming to be untied, Duke holding her hand and saying something soothing she can’t focus on, but it’s all fading to the background compared to the pain of the venom spreading through her, and she passes out.

She wakes up in the hospital the next day, to find Tim waiting by her bedside. He explains that he was able to suck out the venom before she turns into a vampire. He also confirms that Lonnie is shaken but unhurt apart from a few bruises, and was discharged before she woke up.

At the end of the story, Harper and Steph have agreed to go to prom together, even though Steph still has her leg in plaster. (Lonnie refuses to go to any school parties because he’s too alternative.) They’re having a fun time, although it all feels weird to Steph, coming so soon after massive trauma. She hasn’t seen the Waynes much since, because they are mourning Jason, so she’s surprised but pleased when Tim arrives unexpectedly. He tells her that Dick had made him come, arguing that Jason wouldn’t have wanted Steph to be without a date. Steph points out that she can’t dance because of the plaster, and Tim says that he can’t dance because he only knows how to Waltz, so the book ends with the two of them sitting outside holding hands and watching the blimps fly overhead.


	2. Book 2

Harper goes away with her parents over the summer, and Steph was thinking it would be the perfect time to talk to Lonnie about what happened, but he keeps his distance. She’s worried about him, but she's more worried about how the Waynes are coping without Jason. Tim, Damian and Duke are sad but coping, Dick’s pretty cut up about losing his little-wing, Alfred seems okay until he thinks none of the family are looking, and then he just looks so lost that it breaks Steph’s heart. But it’s Bruce who’s really worrying everyone. He used to be weird, but so in control and calm that Steph always felt safe around him. Now he snaps at the slightest provocation, watches her like prey when she’s in the room, won’t talk to anyone, not even Tim. When she cuts herself at their house, Bruce nearly loses control and has to be restrained. The boys take him out hunting while Alfred bandages her up and tells her the story of how Bruce and Jason met, when Bruce was at his lowest and most alone. How Jason had become Bruce’s moral compass, the one person who he trusted to be unflinchingly good, even when Bruce couldn’t trust himself.

Steph doesn't blame Bruce for what happened, and is horrified when Tim tells her they're moving away. She misses them terribly. Harper is away and Lonnie still isn’t answering her calls, so she turns to Cass for support. A week before school starts up, Lonnie suddenly contacts her out of the blue. They go up to the place where the vampires played soccer happened to talk out what happened, since it’s remote and quiet. Lonnie has a lot of questions about Vampires’ powers, how you become one, and how you kill one, which Steph does her best to answer. While they’re talking a red-headed woman Steph doesn’t recognise appears. She’s tells them that Harley, Jack’s mate, is out for revenge for their role in Jack’s death, then attacks them herself but a giant wolf appears out of the forest and chases her away.

When Steph tells Cass about the wolf, Cass says that there’s something she’s sworn not to tell anyone, but she hopes Steph can figure it out. Steph, who is adjusting to the fact that everyone she knows seems to be some kind of Supernatural being, guesses that she’s a werewolf, which Cass admits. Realising that Cass already knows some of what’s happened, Steph tells her the whole story and feels much better that she has someone to share it with.

When school starts up again, Lonnie is acting weird. Harper asks Steph what’s going on, but Steph doesn’t feel she can tell her without endangering her. They have a massive row about it, and Harper starts avoiding her, which pushes her even closer to Cass. She starts to think that perhaps there’s something between them, but when she tries to kiss her, Cass freaks and runs away, leaving Steph confused and even more lonely than before. She argues with her mom, who is trying to help but who Steph doesn’t feel comfortable opening up to.

She becomes depressed, skipping school more and more often, and not leaving her room. She feels trapped and isolated. Just when she feels she’s at her lowest point, she gets a shock - Tim Wayne turns up in her bedroom, asking her if she’s seen Bruce. He admits that they hadn’t moved away, just withdrawn from outside contact, because they were afraid Bruce was going to hurt someone, and because Tim wanted to protect Steph and her friends from him and his brothers.

Steph is furious, but her concern for Bruce overrides her anger for the moment. While Tim’s there, he gets a call from Dick telling him that Bruce has gone to Syria. Tim guesses he’s gone looking for Ra’s, and is planning on asking for R’as to use his power over life and death to bring Jason back, but he explains that Ra’s demands a life for a life, and if he agrees he will kill Bruce first.

Tim prepares to leave to try and catch up to him, and Steph insists on coming too as she feels she is to blame for Jason’s death. Realising that she’s serious, Tim agrees to avoid an argument they don’t have time for. In Damascus they catch up to Bruce close to Ra’s’s palace. They try to reason with him, but just as it looks like they’re convincing him, Ra’s’s people arrive and take them to the palace. Ra’s knows why they’re there, and says that he will do it, but he won’t kill Bruce, since they were friends once. He says he will kill either Tim or Dick, and makes it clear that now they’re here, just opting to leave Jason dead is no longer an option.

Realising that someone she cares about is going to die, Steph spots a loop hole. She argues that since vampires are technically dead, if she becomes a vampire that should count as a life in exchange for Jason. Ra’s tries to dismiss it, but his daughter Talia, who loves Bruce and wants a solution that will hurt him least, agrees with her, and Ra’s gives in. Tim argues that turning her now would draw unwanted attention, and that she should be turned after graduation, so that she can pretend to have moved away to college. Ra’s agrees, but warns that if they don’t turn her within the agreed timescale, he will have Tim and Dick killed. Bruce hands over the urn of Jason’s ashes, and Ra’s says that he will return him once Steph is a vampire, and when Bruce starts to object, Talia promises that she will ensure he keeps his word.

Back home, Steph tells Cass everything, and Cass tells her that if she becomes a vampire it breaks the treaty between Babs and Bruce, and there might be all-out war. That’s basically the last thing Steph needs to hear, when she doesn’t really want to be a vampire in the first place, but she doesn’t feel like she can tell anyone about her concerns when so much is riding on her keeping her word, especially when she’s still so pissed with Tim for basically faking his own death.

When Tim tries to stop her from socialising with Cass because of the whole vampire/werewolf thing, Steph tells him he’s an asshole and punches him. The realisation that however much she likes Tim, she can’t fully trust him, prompts her to reconcile with Harper. She explains that she can’t tell her what’s wrong with Lonnie because she doesn’t really know herself and also she’s under oath to not tell anyone the bits she does know, and Harper accepts her apology. They make a vow that between them they’re going to figure out what’s wrong with Lonnie and do everything they can to help.

They go to Lonnie’s apartment, and are horrified to find it’s been ransacked and he’s nowhere to be seen. Steph gives in and asks Tim to take a look, and he says it’s Harley. While hunting her, the pack and coven meet, and get into a fight, letting her escape. Bruce figures out that she must be behind a recent string of murders in Robbinsville and the Bowery: she’s making an army of baby vampires to fight the Waynes, since the Waynes are older and stronger than her, to get revenge for Joker’s death, which must be why she targeted Lonnie.

The Waynes having been doing what they can to stop individual newborns, but they realise they have to come up with a plan to stop all of them at once. They decide they are going to issue a challenge to call Harley out, which Bruce says she won’t be able to resist. Recognising that the Waynes are in danger, Steph goes to Babs and asks for her help. After explaining all the circumstances, Babs agrees that the Waynes are being forced into breaking the treaty, and so they shouldn’t declare war. She also agrees that since everyone in Gotham is in danger, they will join the fight.

The night before the fight, Cass and Steph are sent to hide out, since Steph is likely to be a target and they don’t know if he home will be attacked. During the night, unable to sleep because she’s worrying about the next day, Steph admits to Cass that she has feelings for her, and while she knows Cass doesn’t return them she doesn’t want either of them to die without her having said it. Cass reveals that she cares for Steph, but has imprinted on Harper but doesn’t feel she can tell Harper how she feels. Steph is upset, but tells her that she should talk to Harper.

The next day, the battle happens. She and Cass are supposed to be keeping out of it, but when Cass hears Babs howl she knows she’s been hurt and runs to help and Steph follows. She arrives to find the baby vampires are regrouping, having taken heavy losses. The Waynes are okay, but Babs has been badly injured, her spine damaged by a group of baby vamps working together when they realised she was the greatest threat. Just as Steph and Cass arrive, so does Harley, and to Steph’s shock she has someone familiar with her - Lonnie. They fight some more, Bruce vs Harley, Lonnie vs Tim, everyone else vs baby vamps. Cass is especially effective. Although Lonnie is stronger, Tim is able to overpower him, but Steph steps in before he can kill him, asking him to spare him. Tim asks how he’s different from any of the other baby vampires, and Steph says that he isn’t, except that she’s asking. Tim agrees. Bruce is about to kill Harley when the red-headed woman who attacked Steph appears. She promises to keep Harley away from them, ensure she doesn’t do anything like this again. Tim wants her killed, but Bruce knows Ivy, and trusts her to keep her word, so he agrees and Ivy takes a screaming Harley away. Lonnie and the surviving baby vampires run away while the Wayne’s are talking to Ivy.

We end on Steph’s graduation. It’s raining, and everyone else is complaining but Steph is pleased because it means that the Waynes (who have mysteriously moved back into town) are able to be there, along with Cass and Babs (now in a wheelchair, but still just as formidable) and the pack. The moment is bittersweet, both because Steph knows she’ll have to become a vampire now and she’s even less into the idea now that she’s seen what it did to all the baby vamps, and because Lonnie isn’t there. The class are going on to a graduation party being thrown by one of the students, and Steph smiles when she sees Harper invite Cass. She hangs back, not wanting to spoil the evening for the people who are so uncomplicatedly happy, when she sees a familiar face at the back of the crowd - Lonnie has also come to watch.

He starts to leave when he sees her looking, but waits when she calls him. They go for a walk, Lonnie telling her that he’s become the defacto leader of the baby vamps, and has taken them out to Bludhaven where there’s plenty of bad guys to hunt. He admits that he wasn’t turned against his will - he asked Harley to do it because he knew the Waynes never would, and even though his afterlife was kinda fucked to begin with, he doesn’t regret becoming a vampire. He promises to keep in touch and they hug before he goes, leaving Steph feeling more hopeful about her future than she has since she met R’as.

The book ends with Tim coming to ask her to go to the party with him. He says that he knows that she has no reason to like or trust him, but he’d like to start regaining that trust, and Steph, realising that she never really got over him, kisses him and says that she can’t make any promises, but she’d like that too.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to write this. I don't have the time, mental energy or inclination. But the idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I thought I'd share it with you all in outline at least.
> 
> Comments are always appreciated.


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